Less than a year ago, Tennessee head coach Phillip Fulmer was openly challenging redshirt freshman LaMarcus Coker to be tougher, now after only missing two games with a knee sprain, Coker is earning praise for his toughness.

Coker, who returns home to Nashville this weekend to play Vanderbilt, said after getting a taste of success on the field the Antioch, Tennessee native want to curve his appetite as quick as he could by getting back on the field.

"Sometimes when you are in the season and playing and things are going well for you, you don't really care about it as much," Coker said. "Once, I went down, I started missing football real fast and that was a factor to push and get back by the Arkansas game and have a chance to play again."

Coker is also quick to point out that he got lucky in that the injury was not as bad as everyone initially thought.

"I think we were all surprised at how fast the recovery was," Coker said. "I did a lot of rehab. I rehabbed two and three times a day. We worked hard at it. I think the other thing is that the injury might not have been as bad as we thought initially with the swelling and everything. Once the swelling went down, things kind of sped up."